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I’ve been asked to post this article I wrote for the Institute of Children’s Literature, online. They bought the rights for one year, and the year is up. But geez, why should the world be denied my genius? *cough*

AS YOUNG AS YOU FEEL: FINDING YOUR GENRE

By

Lisha Cauthen

You’ve wrestled with your demons, angsted online, joined six critique groups, and finally decided that you are a Novelist for Children. TA DAAAA!

I regret to inform you that you still have a decision to make.

Publishers often divide children’s novels into three genres according to age level: Early Chapter, Middle Grade and Young Adult. And they want to know where your work will fit on their list. Do not tell them your arresting, yet accessible novel appeals to folks 8 to 80, or you’ll find yourself sitting on the curb with a big shoe print on your keister.

Try this exercise and find out where your writing fits: Write the same fairy tale as an Early Chapter book, a Middle Grade and Young Adult novel. I used a scene from Little Red Riding Hood:

“My Dear, why are you so timid? What do you think I’ll do? Bite your head off?”

MIDDLE-GRADE

Red Riding Hood loved her grandmother, but she didn’t want to be here today. She had a soccer game in less than an hour. She banged on the door.

“Who’s that?”

That doesn’t sound like Grandma, she thought. Grandma always sounds sweet, even if her bunions are acting up. “It’s me. Red Riding Hood.”

“Come in!” called the voice.

I don’t like this one bit, thought Red Riding Hood, but she went in anyway.

She almost fainted when she looked into the rumpled covers. Red Riding Hood didn’t know who this was, but it sure wasn’t her grandma. “Uh—uh—gosh, Grandma. Your eyes are poppin’ out of your head today.”

The wolf snuggled its snout under the blankets. “Don’t question your elders, Kid. Shut up and do what you’re told.”

YOUNG ADULT

“My mother sucks,” said Red. “I can’t believe she’s making me take this craptaculous stuff to Gram. Doesn’t she know that Edward is waiting for me? Hiding in the shadows in my room, ready to hold me tenderly while I sleep?” Red kicked the door.

“MMMMmmmmm,” said a strange voice.

Stupid grandmother. She doesn’t like Edward. Just because he’s undead doesn’t mean he doesn’t care. He does care! He loves me just for me! Not because I smell tremendously delicious and have super-special blood pulsing in my neck that stretches the limits of his self-control.

Red shoved the door open. Before the wolf could speak, Red said, “I don’t care what you think! Edward would never hurt me! He’s good! And I want him to bite me and make me one of the undead too!”

Maybe you can tell that writing the Early Chapter and Middle Grade excerpts was a chore for me. But the YA. Ah, that spurted from my fingertips like—like blood from a severed artery.

While you’re sampling the genres, remember:

Children’s writers are supposed to write as if THEY are the age of the audience they’re writing for. Do not dwell on whether it’s proper for a 30-year-old mom to feel like a 9-year-old boy.

Your natural genre is the one that is easiest for you to channel from your subconscious. Figure out what age you feel like when you’re writing. Writers often discover their work in progress belongs to a different genre than they originally thought.

Find books similar to what you want to write. See which age genre appeals to you. Children’s books have evolved tremendously, so be sure the books you read are no older than 5 years. Once you know your audience, read 1,000 books in that genre. That is not a typo. 1,000. See what the norms are and why they work. Then study the exceptions and when to use them.

Before you retire to the mud room and pull your lawn chair up to the ironing board you use as a desk, look over these brief descriptions of the three age genres of children’s novels:

EARLY CHAPTER (ages 7-11)

First books that kids read completely on their own.

They want to read about a character who’s like them, or in situations like theirs.

ACTION! The act of reading itself isn’t intoxicating anymore.

Sentences are a bit complex, but paragraphs run 2-4 sentences.

Usually, a thread runs from chapter to chapter.

MIDDLE GRADE (ages 8-12)

Main character focuses inward. These readers are working on their own identities, who they are and what they think, while their relationships and bodies change.

Conflicts often involve friendships, school, siblings.

The main character must grow and change during the course of the book, but these changes are internal.

This audience gets addicted to characters. Consider writing a series with the same cast of players.

Use hooks at the end of chapters to keep the reader turning the page.

YOUNG ADULT

Complex plots with several major characters, though one emerges as the focus of the book. You must make the reader identify with your main character right away. That’s why so many YA novels are first person.

Everything is HUGE! EPIC! Teens have no perspective, no sense that bad times will pass and the world will go on. Every situation is new.

YA readers are stepping outside of their hearth and home, and they want to read about characters whose internal change comes from external events. They want to see how the conflict affects the main character, and how the main character affects the world.

Be subtle. YA readers are smart enough to figure things out for themselves.

Be ruthless. Impale your main character on the merciless horns of a dilemma. (Insert maniacal laughter here.)

There’s no prison worse than “I promise.”

Jonah and Simon, two abandoned brothers, set out to rendezvous with a third brother coming back from Vietnam. The only guarantee they have of meeting up with him is in his letters.

The boys hitch a ride on the highway with Mitch and Lilly. As the story unspools they figure out that Mitch is a psychopath. Lilly’s a flirt. She likes to push Mitch’s buttons.

Jonah tries to keep the promise he made to his older brother, to keep Simon safe. Like all little brothers, Simon doesn’t like getting bossed around. Mitch encourages Simon’s minor rebellions, coaxes them into bitter hatred for Jonah. Who would blame Jonah if he just walked away?

Well, there’s that promise.

^^^

Andrew Smith’s second book is gut-punching good. Each chapter is labeled with the character whose point of view it’s written in. Not necessary. Because every character’s voice is so distinct you can tell them apart without a scorecard. The attention to setting puts you right in the desert southwest without getting artsy-fartsy. And the Vietnam letters have heart-breaking historically accurate touches.

Andrew writes really fast. His third book came out last November: The Marbury Lens. It has been named one of the Best Children’s Fiction Books of 2010 by Publisher’s Weekly, and is on the ALA Best Books for Young Adults list 2010, just like his other two books. And he’s got more in the pipeline.

I’m kind of afraid Andrew’s second book, In the Path of Falling Objects might have been overlooked because it was sandwiched between book one and three, way close to The Marbury Lens release date.

I’ve started maybe a half-dozen posts since the beginning of the year, and haven’t finished any of them. The importance of what I had to say fizzled out in the face of walk-around-life ANGST and DRAMA.

Calm down. We are all healthy and free on bond.

Oh, fine. There were no incidents of any sort involving The Law. I was hyperboleing.

CONFESSION:

I’m in bed wrapped in blankets, with two space heaters chugging away. I’m trying to motivate myself to journey down two flights of stairs and out the door to lunch with my bestie.

But I am so EXHAUSTED by all the STUFF that’s been happening.

CONFESSION:

I couldn’t sleep last night so I played Pop Words and watched MST3K on YouTube into the wee hours of the morning.

I woke up 30 minutes ago.

And about 28 minutes ago, it soooo hit me. Why I write YA.

This is where I like to leave room for the reader to fill in the blanks.

James Frey is raiding MFA programs. He entices destitute grad students to write YA books for him.

For slave wages.

To his specifications, to maximize movie-licensing tie-ins.

Also, these books are written under pseudonyms.

And various and sundry other unfair practices. (See Nova’s and Maureen’s sites.)

My God. The Hubris.

Please notice that he doesn’t go out into the wide, wide world to find his writers. He harvests kids desperate to pay off their tuition debt and too young to know what a crappy deal they’re getting.

User.

He asks the student to submit an outline, and if Frey likes it, the student writes the book. Then the two of them are considered “co-authors”.

Thief.

Then he and Spielberg add material to the novel which will translate well onto the screen and into the Happy Meals.

Cynic.

The whole undertaking from beginning to end reeks of disrespect–for the writer, for the publishing business, and most of all for the reader. James Frey thinks all YA readers like the same bowl of gruel, and he’s got the recipe.

JACKASS.

(Hey. That is a direct quote from a picture book. Don’t blame me!)

Please. Don’t support this insult. Don’t buy, or even read, these books.

I really don’t have anything against adult writers dipping their pens into the YA market.

Really, I don’t.

If they know what they’re doing.

Because YA Lit is not dumbed-down Adult Lit. In fact, I put to you that YA Lit is smarter than Adult Lit. Because teens have very sensitive bullshit-meters, and they won’t sit still for your condescending crap.

I am perpetually 16.

So baby, if you want to write YA, here’s

5 POINTS YOU BETTER GET ABOUT YA LITERATURE:

The Main Character Damn Well Better Be a Young Adult. Not his Amazing and Wise Parent. Nobody gives a rip about a kid who does whatever his mommy thinks is best. Who the hell wants to read about a shrinking violet who has to be saved by her smarmy father? And then we can all learn a lesson about how parents know best and have milk and cookies around the kitchen table and realize we are incompetent and should never leave the nest. The End. Ick.

The Author Can’t Lie. You aren’t going to be able to get away with a damn thing. Every thought, feeling and syllable of dialogue has to be authentic. Oh, adults are used to equivocation. They expect it. Heck, they can’t even tell the difference between fact and fiction any more. But teens? They still think life ought to be fair. They rage against the darkness. So if you dash off some cliché, if you write how you think sixteen should feel, if you don’t dig down to your guts for what it really felt like when you were sixteen…well, they’ve got you by the balls. Stuff feels big. Heck, stuff IS big. It’s time for your first kiss, first love, first break up…you get the picture.

Something Has to Happen. A lot. Teens will not hold still while you stroke your ego with soulful meanderings about the color of the sky and the wind upon his skin and woe and blah blah blah and the state of the world and lah dee dah. Now, they will remember a few well-chosen phrases that really get them somewhere, but blathering just because you can? Show off. Adult readers are such suckers.

The Characters Must Grow over the course of the novel. Sure, there’s a story arc, but in YA the character has to show change. Because that’s what’s happening to teens. They’re morphing every day. Think about the difference in maturity between a 13-year-old and a 19-year-old. You’ve got to change practically every day to make that journey. Remember, this is your audience. If you want to connect, keep in mind what is happening in their lives.

There’s a Got to Be a Tomorrow. The book has to end with some hope, or at least the idea that there’s a future. YA literature doesn’t end with the destruction of every living thing on Earth. Teens are our hope for tomorrow. Don’t take that away.

YA Literature is not Adult Literature lite. Edgy or quiet, lush or spare, fantasy or contemporary, romance or sports story–it’s written for a demanding readership.

By talented and savvy professionals.

*EDIT

Please. People. Chime in. Add your criteria for what makes a book YA Lit in the comments.

Like this:

I went to a book signing for a writer who is fairly well-known, but new to me. She’s primarily an adult author, but was in town to promote her second YA book.

Well, she gave an interesting talk. A little reserved, but perhaps that’s how adult authors are. Then it came time for questions.

There weren’t any.

A sure sign she hadn’t engaged the audience. Which consisted of a few dozen older adults, a trio of college-aged girls, and a homeschooler family with a tween and two teens.

After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, some pity-questions popped up.

Where do you get your ideas?

What did you read when you were growing up?

How long did it take you to write this book?

What’s the difference between an adult book and a YA?

red alert*red alert*red alert*red alert*red alert

I certainly wanted to hear what she thought the difference was between adult and YA lit.

Here is my reconstituted and paraphrased but fairly accurate rendition of her answer:

“I can’t use such big words in YA. And I have to tone the sex way down.”

That would be a wrong answer.

To be fair, earlier she said the most creative stuff was happening in YA lit. She got THAT right.

But then she said she wanted to write YA because she had something to say to the youth out there.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

I have heard of her editor. She is brilliant, and knows the difference between an adult and YA novel. I’m sure she guided the manuscript well. I went ahead and bought the book, told the author I enjoyed her talk, because I did. I bet I’ll enjoy her book too.

But that answer about the difference between adult and YA is stuck in my craw, dames and dudes.

It wasn’t Iris Baldwin’s idea to leave her home in Atchison. Just like it wasn’t her mother’s idea to die and leave Iris alone with her father.

This particular summer, Iris’ father decides to hire her out as a companion to a doctor’s elderly mother.

Without consulting Iris.

Seems like a reasonable solution to him–after all, he’s got his hands full with a fiancée and a new store he’s opening in Kansas City.

So Iris leaves her hunkalicious friend, Leroy, and obediently boards a train to live with strangers in the middle of nowhere.

I’m not going to tell you any more about the plot, because it’s too delicious to spoil for you. I want to assure you that plenty of stuff happens. PLENTY. Also, DO NOT COUNT LEROY OUT.

Usually, a book stays with you for one striking characteristic, but Crossing the Tracks is one of those rare books that dazzled me for multiple reasons.

First, the beauty of the language. There will be passages you stop and reread just to savor the words. But I’m not the kind of gal who loves words just for their own sake. There’s gotta be story.

And there is story. Man alive, there is story. Barb Stuber has gleaned vignettes and narrative from family and acquaintances who lived during the era. And of course, from her magnificent brain box.

Last of all, the historical detail. Crossing the Tracks contains the kind of information you can only get from reading stacks of magazines, listening to old radio programs or from people who experienced the times.

This book was especially interesting to Freckles McYoungest, as her grandmother was a teen in the ’20s in Kansas City. But it should appeal to any reader with a grandmother or great-grandmother who lived during this time.

Read Crossing the Tracks, even if you think you don’t like historical fiction. You’ll like this.

13 Reasons Why,the debut YA novel by Jay Asher is the fourth in our series of kidlit books in which the author demonstrates an incredible mastery of a specific aspect of the writer’s craft.

Clay Jensen finds a strange package on his porch. Inside, there are cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker–his dead classmate. He will spend an evening crisscrossing town, listening to the tapes to find out the 13 reasons why Hannah committed suicide. Clay is one of those reasons.

JAY ASHER’S SUPERPOWER

Each character is completely differentiated, a difficult task with so many teen characters.

1. Throughout 13 Reasons Why, Hannah tells her story to Clay through the tapes–intimately, in his ear. Jay Asher has found a seamless way to mesh their two points of view. This way, A TENSION DEVELOPS BETWEEN THE REVELATION AND RECEPTION OF THE CHARACTERS’ SECRETS.

For instance, we find out about a girl “…known for being a good listener, and sympathetic…” who agrees to come over and help Hannah when she’s being terrorized by a Peeping Tom.

“She smiled and raised an eyebrow. ‘Do you think he’ll come back?’…This girl’s got a twisted side that very few of you know about.”

“To catch our Peeping Tom, we knew we needed to keep the talking quiet. We needed to hear that first…Click… Her mouth dropped open. Her eyes, I’ve never seen them that happy….”

” ‘You know what I could use?’ she asked. ‘A nice, deep, back massage.’ “

“She pulled open the drawer, looked inside, and covered her mouth. What? There was nothing in my drawer worthy of a reaction like that. There was nothing in my whole room worthy of that. ‘I didn’t know you were into this.’ she said, nice and loud. ‘We should use it…together.’ “

“So who was this mystery girl? Should I tell?”

Well, you and Clay are going to have to flip the cassette over to find out if Hannah does tell. Oh, and in the scene, Jay also gives us a mountain of information about the Peeping Tom. And Hannah. And Clay, of course.

2. Jay reveals his characters almost entirely through VIGNETTES. We get to see the characters in action and draw our own conclusions. Sometimes our conclusions agree with Hannah’s and/or Clay’s, but sometimes, they don’t.

“I just sat there, in the booth where Marcus left me, staring into an empty milkshake glass…”

“When up walked Zach. I pretended not to notice him. NOT because I had anything against him, but because my heart and my trust were in the process of collapsing…”

“He offered to buy me another milkshake, but I gave no response…”

“…Zach left a few bucks on the table and returned to his friends.”

“…and before I left, I listened in on you and your friends. They were teasing you for not getting that date you assured them was in the bag.”

“…you took the teasing.”

” {but}…you chose to get back at me in the most childish of ways.”

3. Jay Asher’s characters are fully rounded because they aren’t stale stereotypes gleaned from previous fiction. They seem to have been kidnapped straight from his neighborhood high school, because they BEHAVE LIKE REAL PEOPLE, NOT IN WAYS CONVENIENT FOR A PLOT OR LESSON TO BE LEARNED.

Up until this point in my Master Writers Series, I have chosen examples that weren’t exactly spoilers for the novels being discussed. But in this instance, I feel the best example has to be this spoiler. If you haven’t read 13 Reasons Why, I beg you to read it before you go on to my third point. Fair warning. Here we go. No turning back.

Throughout the novel, Hannah fights her undeserved slutty reputation. Things come to a breaking point after a terrible night:

“…someone called my name…a head poked up. And whose head would that be? Bryce Walker’s.”

{Clay} “God, no. This can only end one way. If anyone can shovel more shit onto Hannah’s life, it’s Bryce.”

“{and}…Miss Courtney Crimsen…She’s the one who left me stranded with no one to talk to. And there I was, at her house, where she had nowhere to hide.”

{Clay} “That’s not why you did it Hannah…You knew it was the worst choice possible…You wanted your world to collapse…”

“…I was right not to trust them…but I was done. I was through fighting…”

“Bryce, you had to see my jaw clench. You had to see my tears…then, just like that, I let go…My legs fell apart. I knew exactly what I was doing. Not once had I given into the reputation you’d all set for me. Not once…Until Bryce…I let my reputation catch up with me–I let my reputation become me–with you.”

Boy. The easy author choice would have been an out-an-out violent rape. Good-girl Hannah kills herself because nobody would have believed her. Bad boy Bryce. Eh. We knew he was no good. Tragedy. *Yawn*.

Honest to Murgatroyd, I think this is the most heartbreaking, dead-on, brilliant scene in the whole book. If you think Hannah was asking for it, or could have gotten away, I submit that you’re missing the point.

She has been trying to get away from the reputation the student body has pegged her with for the entire book.

She can’t.

Hannah has been disappointed, degraded, embarrassed, debased, time and again. She was through fighting–she had fought it so long and so hard, obsessed over her reputation, she became what she feared most.

She made a choice. Or did she? Bryce certainly didn’t overpower her. But did the actions of the other students over the school year “brainwash” her?

Layer upon layer. Each character sharp, distinctly individual.

13 Reasons Why is an important contribution to teen literature. There’s very little action, mostly character study, but oh! how fascinating! For that reason I give you Jay Asher, the Teen Character Master.

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